War Crimes

A week ago, the newspaper Bosnia Daily (no online edition) reported that an arrest of General Ratko Mladic, the highest-ranking war crimes suspect from the 1990’s conflict, was still at large. De Weld reports that it’s not quite that simple, and Mladic’s whereabouts and living situation are the subject of a myriad of contradictory reumors around the area.

Meanwhile, ex-Republika Srpska President Radovan Karadzic refused to enter a plea before a panel of judges at ICTY this week. His initial panel had been replaced at Karadzic’s request, and the new presiding judge entered a “not guilty” plea on Karadzic’s behalf.

Former war crime fugitive and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic refused Friday to enter a plea at the U.N. court for the former Yugoslavia, saying he did not recognize the authority of the court.

Karadzic stands accused of overseeing a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims and Croats in the area, including a massacre at the U.N. enclave of Srebrenica.

Prosecutors hope to expedite the proceedings as former Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosovic died of a heart attack in 2006 before the conclusion of his genocide trial.

Karadzic faces 11 charges of war crimes.

The tribunal judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

The International Criminal Court at the Hague Thursday charged former U.N. war crimes spokesperson Florence Hartmann with two counts of contempt for disclosing sensitive information regarding Slobodan Milosevic during his prosecution at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugloslavia.

The Hague accuses Hartmann of disclosing the information in her 2007 book, “Peace and Punishment,” and and in article titled “Vital Genocide Documents Concealed,” published earlier this year.

In “Peace and Punishment,” Hartmann accuses Russia, the United States, Britain and France of harboring Serbian war criminals.  She also alleges Western powers knew of the attacks on Srebrenica before the events occurred.

She appears before the court Sept. 15.

Joanne Tomkinson for Reuters has this piece highlighting some of the criticisms against current chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.  Tomkinson points to an article in The Guardian where several representatives of Human Rights Watch have criticized the management of Moreno-Ocampo.

Supporters of the court fear that Moreno-Ocampo’s style of management is damaging the court’s credibility and its ability to prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the international court at The Hague, said Wednesday his office is assessing allegations of war crimes in Georgia.

Ocampo met with Russian and Georgia officials to go over claims of attacks on non-combatants in the conflict over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

“My office considers carefully all information relating to alleged crimes within its jurisdiction … regardless of the individuals or groups alleged to have committed the crimes,” he said in a statement.

The humanitarian groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also said they are examining the claims.

The ICC holds jurisdiction in areas where normal courts are not functioning or under a mandate issued by the U.N. Security Council.

On the BBC World Service Tuesday, several Georgian residents said Russian soldiers were cordial during operations and blamed paramilitary forces from South Ossetia for the atrocities.

As Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announces he will punish Georgia, reports from the war-torn country suggest that Russia may not be fully withdrawing. Both France - the current president of the European Union - and the United States cautioned Russia to abide by the terms of the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the Manchester Guardian notes that Georgia’s military has been decimated, and separately that Russia has threatened a nuclear first strike on Poland, and Ukraine offered to participate in a European-US missile shield.

Neither the diplomatic nor the legal ramifications of the conflict are clear yet, but Medvedev’s government appears to remain determined to create facts on the ground before law or diplomacy can alter them.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 18 (UPI) — An Iraqi court resumed session Monday in the case against former Iraqi Deputy Premier Tariq Aziz for the execution of several merchants in 1992.

Aziz, a Christian, and seven other defendants face war crimes charges in an Iraqi court for ordering the execution of several businessmen who had protested rising food prices in the wake of U.N. sanctions on the former regime.

Witnesses took to the stand Monday concealed behind a curtain using voice alterations to disguise their identity, Voices of Iraq reported.

The former deputy premier, widely recognized by his coke-bottle glasses and bombastic English, surrendered to U.S. forces shortly after the fall of Saddam Hussein. He has been in U.S. custody since then.

As Jurist notes, Georgia has filed a complaint against Russia at the ICJ, and Russia is seeking evidence of war crimes by Georgian forces.

The U.N. backed tribunal for the Khmer Rouge included war crimes on the indictment for the notorious prison leader, Kaing Guek Eav, or “Duch.”

Duch, who faces charges for crimes against humanity, had war crimes added to his list of charges stemming from atrocities during the reign of the regime from 1975 to 1979.

Five senior members of the Khmer Rouge were arrested in 2007 and charged with a variety of atrocities, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. It’s estimated than nearly 2 million people died in a quasi-eugenics campaign backed by the Khmer Regime to form an ultra-communist agrarian utopia through forced labor camps.

Duch, a former math teacher, led the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, or S-21, where more than 14,000 people were tortured under his strict authority.

His trial is expected to begin in September.

As everyone reading this almost certainly knows, Russia invaded Georgia on Friday in support of separatists in the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia - the locations of the so-called “frozen conflicts.”

Pravda accuses the President of Georgia, Mikhal Saakashvili, of “war crimes against humanity” as a result of Georgia’s attempts to pacify South Ossetia, while Saakashvili asserts Georgia was forced into war and plans to bring charges against Russia for war crimes at the ICC.

Human Rights Watch and other NGOs have called for both sides to carefully discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, but reporting indicates that civilians on both sides have been killed and more forced to flee their homes.

This morning, CNN reported that Russia had ordered a cessation of hostilities, but Georgia alleges the Russian offensive is ongoing. Hopefully a ceasefire will be confirmed shortly.